Malawi: The Ministry of Agriculture is dedicated to the commercialization and mechanization of the agriculture sector of Malawi. Minister of Agriculture, Sam Kawale has emphasized the important role of diversification in agriculture to achieve food security, economic empowerment, and national development.
He made these remarks while visiting NEEF loan beneficiaries’ farms on February 3. During the trip, he was accompanied by the Minister of Finance, Simplex Banda in Santhe, Kasungu.
Kawale highlighted the need for collaboration with the Ministries of Finance and Trade. The aim of the collaboration is to secure adequate funding to invest in farm mechanisation and promote exports in the country. The stakeholders of both the ministries recognize agriculture’s impact on income generation and Forex.
Minister of Agriculture Sam Kawale further encouraged more young people to join clubs, register with National Economic Empowerment Fund Limited – NEEF. He urged the farmers to apply for loans to engage in agri-business.
Senior Chief Santhe applauded government for introducing the loans to empower farmers who struggle to acquire necessary farm inputs. She urged farmers to be accountable, work hard and capitalize on the opportunity to increase production and transform their livelihood.
Miriam Jekapu, who secured a K15 million loan from NEEF, has cultivated 20 hectares of maize, 10 hectares of groundnuts, and 10 hectares of rice. She encourages fellow women to apply for the loans to attain financial independence and assist in providing for their families.
Miriam expressed gratitude to the government for enabling farmers to engage in large-scale farming through the loans and appealed for ongoing government support to explore additional export markets that can contribute to the country’s foreign exchange reserves.
NEEF CEO, Humphrey Mdyetseni commended government’s dedication to tackling food security challenges through farm input loans. He revealed that, in the upcoming allocation of farm input loans, priority will be given to supporting irrigation farming.
He also shared that to-date, NEEF has disbursed 97 billion kwacha in loans in the past 3 years and 20 billion kwacha towards the Farm Input Loan initiative.